WELCOME!

I decided to start this blog to as an avenue for me to be able to post about some of the fun things that I do from time to time. It could be a Car Show revue, what I did on Vacation, what I like about this or that automobile, my experience with a photo shoot, what I have in my Automobilia collection, or whatever I think of at the moment. I hope you like it! All feedback will be appreciated.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

VIDEO: Sacramento Autorama 2013 - Saturday

Just wanted to add this to the Sacramento Autorama write-up. It's not much, but just something to share.


Sacramento Autorama 2013 - Friday

Since I have been so busy these past few months, I ended up falling way behind on my blogging. So I will do my best to remember how the day went. This is going to be short, hopefully, since all I did was attend the event and take pictures all day.

I started off fairly early in the morning, and headed to Sacramento. The drive from my house was a little longer than normal as I was driving my air-bagged Chevy S10. I hadn't driven it this far since I had purchased it, so I was a little unsure about the drive.But I headed out anyways. The drive is about an hour normally, so I knew it was going to be a little longer than that. When I drive the S10, I tend to drive slower than usual. I keep it at a cruising speed between 55 and 65 mph. It relaxes me since I'm just cruising it down the highway. On the way up I saw several advertising signs for the show on telephone poles. I began to wonder what it would take to get one. So when I saw one that appeared to be close enough to the ground for me to try and get it, I pulled off the freeway and tried my best. But, without a hammer to pull the nails from the sign, I didn't get it. Oh Well! After 10 minutes of struggling, since it was a little higher than I expected it to be, I left, and kept going to the show.

I arrived at about 9:30 or 10:00 am. The parking lot was still pretty empty. Since Friday is the first day of the event, it usually doesn't draw a crowd until later in the day. This is why I decided to go. It was going to be a quiet day at the show, and I wanted to get as many photos as I could without having to wait 10-20 minutes for "just the right moment". On the way up to the gate, I caught sites of a few cool cars in the parking lot. So I grabbed a few shots with the iPhone for my "Spotted!" album, then headed in. First stop was the Ford booth just inside the gate. I checked out the green Mustang in the booth and pulled out the camera to get a few photos. Since I had just gotten a new wide angle lens, I wanted to see how well it worked. I took a few shots then headed into the first set of buildings.

The first building was the same as last years. Bike-O-Rama! I went in and saw yet again, a bunch of really cool bikes that were custom built. But not only bikes! There were some very cool custom pedal cars, and a few really cool custom wagons. I walked around for a few minutes checking it all out, and grabbed several photos of what really grabbed my attention. I spent about 45 minutes in the building then headed on to the next one.

In the next few buildings, I grabbed photos of some great looking rides. More Mustangs, A few Camaros, Some cool trucks, and several sweet drag cars. The one that really grabbed my attention was a vintage dragster. They always get my attention. This one was just too cool. So I grabbed as many shots as I could of it. It was a recent restoration of the Bob Duedall B/Comp Dragster.There was even a good sized plaque of the history of the dragster sitting in front of it. It was such a cool site to see. After getting the photos I needed, it was on to the rest of the buildings in this area. Once I completed looking through them, it was on to main building to see the best of the the best. I spent the rest of the day up until 10:00 pm in the main building checking out the sweet beautiful works of art. I took quite a lot of photos of each car that I just stood out to me and enjoyed every second of the day.

In the main area, there was an long time acquaintance of mine doing his usual thing. Brooksie was just under the stairs across from John D'Agostinos 1940 Cadillac Custom. Which happened to be the right place. I had been wanting to see this car for a while. At least since John started posting pictures of the car in it build state on his Facebook timeline. This car is absolutely stunning. The color, the chrome, the stance, the elegance. It all worked so well together. And of course, there's the name, "Sophia." Another Celebrity themed car to go with the builds from recent years. I grabbed a lot of photos of her too. As far as Brooksie, he's just a cool guy that sells really cool historical vintage and antique items, all related to the car culture. He had a couple of beautiful Jukeboxes, a cool pinball machine, neon signs, and a few cool smaller novelty signs. But he always has some very cool trinkets. Stickers, patches, ashtrays, telephones, and of course, the vinyl records. As it turns out, my cell phone had almost died, so I needed to charge it. Thankfully he had an extra opening in his outlet strip for me to be able to get it done. Then later on in the evening, he asked me to take some photos of him and the booth. He even offered to pay me. But not only for this time, but anytime I am at a show and he's there, he wanted me to shoot them too. So I agreed to do it to make a little bit of cash. It helped pay for me to get into the shows, and I wasn't going to turn it down. And it was a big help that it was late and no one was left in the building except the workers and a few car owners. So I snapped a few of the booth. Then John D'Agostino showed up, and I was able to get some shots with him and "Sophia."

My day at the event went very well! I saw some old friends, acquaintances, and some beautiful automobiles. So I left and went to In-N-Out Burger for a late dinner. Then I went to head home, and as a great way to end the day, I locked my keys in the truck. So I called AAA to get someone out to unlock the truck. I went bacck in and grabbed a milk shake, waited for them to arrive. It took about 30 minutes. Once that was all taken care of, I was on my way home to end the long fun day. Thank You for reading!  I will also add some photos when I get the chance to do so. Check out more of my experiences, and please return for my Saturday write up. I will also be adding videos to my YouTube Channel - speedtrap73, and posting them here as well.

Friday, April 5, 2013

I've moved to a new home!

Well, as things have been really hectic as of late, I am writing to tell of why.

A couple months back, we decided to sell the house we had been living in for the past 9 years. We, means myself, my wife Cristy, her parents, her brother and his wife. We bought the house with the intention of helping out one another. Well as I said, it was the intention. But when the market tanked, that intention went south. So then it became more of a lets just wait it out and see. Then it became a let's wait two more years until I retire program for my father-in-law. So, I don't think I want to draw this into that story, so let me just go in a different direction. The direction, my wife and I are finally free of it all, and can get things back to where they should have been.

The house didn't take but a week to get to Pending status. We received several offers, and one wanted the house so bad that they just upped their offer to a price we just couldn't resist. We took the offer, and waited to be sure all things were good before we started to look for a new home. At first we had wanted to buy, but with so many investors killing the locale market, we took a right turn and hit the rental market. My wife and I started looking on several websites, as well as a few iPhone apps to see what we could find. After looking at a few, we got a little frustrated. Nothing had a good enough size Master Bedroom that would fit all of the furniture we had. Then, one day driving around we came upon a house with a sign in the front yard. So I got out and did a walk around the house. I looked in a window and noticed that the size of the Family Room, Dining Room, and Kitchen were very large. Then I looked into another window. It was the Master Bedroom, and it was also very large. It had more than enough room to fit our furniture into it. So I told my wife, and I called the number on the sign in the front yard while we were there. I left a message and off we went. A few day later I received a return call from the property management company, and we set up an appointment for me to go have a look. My wife wasn't able to make it since she was working, so I went without her. I walked around the inside of the place and took photos to send to my wife. This house was more than we really need for the two of us, and I wanted to apply for the place so we didn't have to keep looking. I spoke to the agent and asked a few questions. She gave me my answers, and the application, and I went back home.

I spoke to my wife later that evening about the place. She wasn't too sure of the area outside the neighborhood as it wasn't the best part of town. Well, the next day she asked me to contact the next door neighbor, who just so happens to be someone her family and several of friends had known for some time. So I got the number from a friend and made the call. I spoke to the wife and she told me nothing but good things about the neighborhood as they had been living in the house for seven years. I then told all that I had been told to my wife. She was still unsure, but decided to let me make a judgement call. So we went to the Agency and filled out the application. It took a few days to hear back from the agency, but when I got in contact with an agent, they let me know that there was a little problem and I needed to contact the company that was running the background and credit check. The problem was that we needed to have the house closed to show that it was in fact sold in order to get our Debt to Income ratio fixed. I explained that the house wasn't on our income, and in fact several, but the house still needed to close. So once that was all done, we got things in order, kept the appointment for signing the lease agreement and getting the keys.

Now, come appointment day we had several friends, and family members come to help load up a bunch of stuff. Once it was time to get to the house for the appointment, my wife and I headed over. But, I had been contacted by the agency, and they told me that they were behind schedule and that they would be about an hour late. So I told the friends and family to just meet us at a McDonald's around the corner from the house just to relax and wait. Once we were told they would be at the house, we headed over. We arrived, signed the papers, walked the house for what visible items were in need of repair and went on to get things in the house. It took all day to get things moved in. By the dinner time we were quite tired and decided to take the friends out to dinner, as the family had left earlier since they had things to do in the evening. The next day it was all over again. I had a couple of my friends meet at the house around 9:00 am as my wife and I stayed there. Once they arrived, we headed back to the old place to get some of the larger items, pack up more of the small stuff and bring it over to the new place. We got it all unloaded and a few of us went over to clean out the storage unit I had to rent to clean out the garage of all of my collectibles that had been boxed up for the past nine years. I had to put them into storage to help with the Open House when we put the house on the market. We got it all out, swept it clean, and took it home. Once it was all unloaded, it was time for dinner. So off I went with a friend for Pizza and Beer, then back home to relax from a long two days of moving.

Since all of our stuff wasn't completely cleaned out of the old house, and we really didn't have to have it out for a few more weeks, my wife and I relaxed over the weekend. But come Monday, she was back to work, and I was back to cleaning up and packing more stuff to bring to the new house. It took almost the entire week to get it all cleared out and cleaned up. My father-in-law had requested to get a dumpster to be dropped off, so I took Thursday off so I wouldn't have to waste my gas. So I went back on Friday to finish it off. I claened the carpet in my part of the house, tossed out all the junk into the dumpster and finished watching a couple show that were Tivo'd. By the end of the day, I was pretty much done. Still have a little bit of stuff to get, but it will be picked up the next time I'm around. Which happens to be on Saturday after I spend the day at a Pinstriping class I decided to take. The family decided to have 1 final family Virginia Ham dinner before everyone is off in their own world. So, with that said, I hope you enjoyed the read, and I will be catching up on all of the stuff I have been wanting to write about over the past few months. That includes mu experience of my Pinstriping class.